straight out of the hobbit, if smaug was a computer
- December 10th, 2016
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As per yesterday’s post, I’ve been doing a lot of new year’s cleanup/clean-out, and that includes old computer gear. And that lead to a series of events with my old AmigaUUCP Usenet site, lorbit.UUCP, as hosted on the very-heavily-modified homemade-tower-case Amiga 500, smaug.
These series of events loosely follow the arc of the machine’s namesake, Smaug, the dragon, in The Hobbit.
smaug.lorbit.uucp, the ancient chiefest and greatest of calamities… awakens. pic.twitter.com/ivnBwE64VC
— solarbirdy (@solarbirdy) December 10, 2016
that is the actual physical a500-based monster of my own design, actually booted. holy hell.
— solarbirdy (@solarbirdy) December 10, 2016
this thing is such a mess. want to see WOODEN DRIVE BAYS? Can do sport! pic.twitter.com/81n3mGmtDF
— solarbirdy (@solarbirdy) December 10, 2016
gaze upon my abomination and despair pic.twitter.com/YUN4YSf7Eq
— solarbirdy (@solarbirdy) December 10, 2016
why yes that is a zorro II slot cage made out of LUMBER why do you ask pic.twitter.com/uGtmLs2hDL
— solarbirdy (@solarbirdy) December 10, 2016
keyboard also lumber? BUT OF COURSE pic.twitter.com/k6T5UtAVYH
— solarbirdy (@solarbirdy) December 10, 2016
only the back tho' pic.twitter.com/Sx6XfJV701
— solarbirdy (@solarbirdy) December 10, 2016
on the plus side, it's an original A500 but with ECS chipset (find many of those I dare you) running at… 14.3 mhz? and 7x stock RAM. pic.twitter.com/qACTzkGaeo
— solarbirdy (@solarbirdy) December 10, 2016
y2k compliant pic.twitter.com/HqBNTwoJH9
— solarbirdy (@solarbirdy) December 10, 2016
@solarbirdy this is so cascadian. would any part of this computer happen to be a chainsaw carving of sasquatch
— Orion Scribner (@frameacloud) December 10, 2016
@frameacloud no but this is on the side of the monitor pic.twitter.com/0PlfU0mqXe
— solarbirdy (@solarbirdy) December 10, 2016
Just like in the book, one last rampage was it – the drive died after those photos! Fortunately I'd imaged it _first_. @mojosarmy pic.twitter.com/hqNrZLRY7i
— solarbirdy (@solarbirdy) December 10, 2016
OH MY GODS IT'S THE SAME GOO AS THE MELTY FEET
— solarbirdy (@solarbirdy) December 10, 2016
THE DRIVE USED THE SAME PLASTIC IN THE HEAD MECHANISM AS WAS USED IN THE FEET IT TURNED TO GOO AND LOCKED THE HEADS pic.twitter.com/FDm3icYz5C
— solarbirdy (@solarbirdy) December 10, 2016
LOOOOOOOOOOK OMG pic.twitter.com/MNXrpUdQ5k
— solarbirdy (@solarbirdy) December 10, 2016
@solarbirdy THIS USED TO BE RUBBER pic.twitter.com/evSZoJDKlv
— solarbirdy (@solarbirdy) December 10, 2016
so gross i can't believe i managed to image this drive and even boot off it once it is a fucking miracle pic.twitter.com/dCrcnsjjrm
— solarbirdy (@solarbirdy) December 10, 2016
this stuff is UNQUESTIONABLY Satan's personal lubricant. pic.twitter.com/eyvCM0XJXK
— solarbirdy (@solarbirdy) December 10, 2016
on the plus side, the death goo rampage gave me the opportunity to verify it still boots fine off floppy pic.twitter.com/gQ2TzMkpOG
— solarbirdy (@solarbirdy) December 10, 2016
so there is, at least, that. (and the successfully-created image, of course. <3 )
— solarbirdy (@solarbirdy) December 10, 2016
2 comments on Google+.
This is an awesome thing. I’m glad I’m not alone in thinking wood is a perfectly fine thing to construct computers out of…
It was, as they say, what I had. XD
Also, I am dispersing a lot of this hardware, and this in particular I’d like to keep together since it’s a lot more of a thing as one big piece than as separate parts. I can’t ship it (it’s lollertasticly big) so if you know anyone who might 1) want to buy it (for below eBay parts prices, it’s a package deal), and 2) pick it up in the Seattle area, let them know.